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Friday, January 03, 2014

Friends! A happy new year to you all, and I hope the holidays have treated you well. Today I bring you a... slightly late 2013 Recap. You see, I tried to get this finished before December ended, but I tend to die to the world in the week between Christmas and New Year's Eve, and it usually takes me a whole other week to get back into shape.

So. Today is January 3rd, which puts me right on schedule. Are you ready for an image-heavy recap?

There were no big travels in 2013 (something I hope to change in 2014) but still, I visited a few new places. Behold, the sad Palacete Pinto Leite, in Porto; and the incredible Museu Soares dos Reis, also in Porto (covered in three posts: one, two, three).

In the world of Korean pop, there were dozens of good songs, videos, and albums, but because it's easier to measure time in singles, here are my favorites, in no particular order: IU's Red Shoes, a super energizing 20s-inspired electro-jazzy song with a video to match; Brown Eyed Girls's Kill Bill, an homage to the Tarantino film with a slight comedy twist; and History's What Am I To You, which managed to play the tropes of a boyband video completely straight (the elaborate choreo, the close-ups) while going in the completely opposite direction with the other half of the video (heavy smoking, heavy drinking, depressed boys in their underwear, etc etc etc).

The second batch of favorites, still in no particular order includes: Jaejoong's Mine, a badass song/video about fighting the people who contamine your room and block the light that shines on you (I swear I'm not making this up); Sunny Hill's Darling Of All Hearts, a good-humoured take on what it's like to be the single girl who somehow ends up giving out relationship advice (with bonus folk-ish intrumental!); VIXX's Voodoo Doll, which is quite frankly a little too gory for general audiences (you probably shouldn't watch it if body modification... and blood... and guts... and needles... freak you out), but just right for this morbid blogger; and Block B's Very Good, the official comeback of the world's most inadequate boyband, where they rob a bank, make fun of the world's obsession with swag, and wear corsets. You know, the usual.

TV

2013 was more or less the year I came back to watching TV. I lack the attention span to watch long series, you see, so generally, I don't even start. Still, this past year I found myself obsessively following American Horror Story: Coven, which you've probably heard of (the witches! the hats! the house! in New Orleans! hold me before I start singing The House Of The Rising Sun!), and unearthing a Korean drama from 2011 called White Christmas.

Now. Both shows are really good, but I will always have a thing for the Break The Cutie trope, and White Christmas pretty much runs on it. The story is simple: in a high school for the top 1% students in the country, seven kids receive a mysterious letter with a poem and a threat, stating they will find a body in the school grounds during Christmas break. So what do they do? They stay in their glass cage of a school for the duration of the break, with only one teacher to keep them company. The show poses one question, and it's right up my alley: are monsters born, or created?

Oh, and finally, because I don't live under a rock, I might have gotten a little too invested in Attack On Titan. I will say one thing and one thing only: this anime knows how to make an impression.

Books

I read 40 books in 2013, a large number for me, but still a good ten books short of my goal. The only book I rated with five stars was Tanith Lee's Disturbed By Her Song, a collection of "tales of homosexual love and desire". It's the perfect book for those days when all you want to do is curl up with a blanket and daydream.

I didn't watch a lot of movies in 2013 - in fact, I think I went to the movies exactly once. Actually no, wait. Twice. Like every self-respecting Portuguese person, I went to see La Cage Dorée, a Luso-French production about a family of Portuguese emigrants in Paris. It hit a little close to home, being a granddaughter of emigrants myself, and I must confess I did cry a bit. Ok, a lot. But so did everyone in the room during the same exact scene, so it felt right.

Like every self-respecting fan of cool-looking movies, I also went to see Pacific Rim - it wasn't perfect, but some of the characters were. Just like the soundtrack, the incredible action sequences (boat sword!), and of course, the overall concept. They say a sequel has been approved. I am 110% in for it.

There were other movies, of course, and these three were my favorite: Byzantium, a very awesome, very fresh take on vampire lore by the director of Interview With The Vampire and The Company Of Wolves; Stoker, an almost Freudian tale of love, desire, and of course murder; and American Mary, a pseudo horror movie about a medical student who lets the promise of easy money lure her into the world of underground body modification.

Can you say YAY for complex female characters? I can, and looking back, I can tell 2013 was a good year to be Team Girl. Hopefully 2014 will be even better? Wish me luck, and see you next week!